Drinking European style (3 gr, 7 oz, 3 min) a 2005 De Hong "Golden Melon" sheng made by the Luxi Wantong Tea Factory and purveyed by YSLLC. This melon, shaped like an enormous 500 gr tuo, is not especially good, but was cheap. It sort of reminds me of flat ginger ale.

Salsero wrote:Drinking European style (3 gr, 7 oz, 3 min) a 2005 De Hong "Golden Melon" sheng made by the Luxi Wantong Tea Factory and purveyed by YSLLC. This melon, shaped like an enormous 500 gr tuo, is not especially good, but was cheap. It sort of reminds me of flat ginger ale.

While this tea is certainly not fantastic it does the job of giving you a tasty hot beverage. The brick itself is absolutely ugly. The wet leaves are ugly. The liquor is a very dark caramel color which is strange for 2007. The bottom line is, it is a very good tea for the price. I find nothing about it offensive. It can be drunk now but would benefit greatly with aging. I have 2 bricks and will probably get another 1-2. I defiantly recommend this because it is so cheap. $5 for 250 grams is nearly nothing. So on your next order throw a few bricks in, I dont think you will be disappointed.

Today in my cup I am leisurely enjoying an 05 7562 which appears to have been part of a zhuan. It's smooth, more savory than sweet with an okay mouthfeel. The tea appears to be a medium fermentation, and I'd imagine in another few years this could be something special, but right now it's okay. Then again I'm not very experienced with shu, so take this with a grain of salt.

Today I'm drinking a 2008 Hai Lang Hao "Star of Bu Lang", sheng pu made from 3-year-old maocha.
It's quite full-flavored and tasty, brews fairly dark for a young tea, without much bitterness at all. At $24/357g, I'm on the fence. I still have 20g left in my sample baggie, so I should have a better idea whether or not to buy a cake or two by the time I've depleted that.
I gong-fu'd it up for me and a coworker, in our post-clam-chowder food coma, and it perked both of us up enough to get back to work (read: TeaChat for me, work for him!). lol.
ok, now back to real work. anyone else tried this tea?
-dave

Dizzwave wrote:Today I'm drinking a 2008 Hai Lang Hao "Star of Bu Lang", sheng pu made from 3-year-old maocha.It's quite full-flavored and tasty, brews fairly dark for a young tea, without much bitterness at all. At $24/357g, I'm on the fence. I still have 20g left in my sample baggie, so I should have a better idea whether or not to buy a cake or two by the time I've depleted that. I gong-fu'd it up for me and a coworker, in our post-clam-chowder food coma, and it perked both of us up enough to get back to work (read: TeaChat for me, work for him!). lol. ok, now back to real work. anyone else tried this tea?-dave

How do you like it? Looks awfully light for a 2000. 7532 is my favorite recipe so I was very interested in this.

The infusion was light. I was using a brand new pot and I am sure I could have used some more leaf - This tea is one of the better of the few that I have tried to date, it has an almost Bourbon like smokiness in the back round and a subtle but long lasting sweetness overlaying it. I have ordered a beng of it. Hope this is helpful.

I have a cake and have had one session with it ... I liked it a lot, but the Hai Lang Hao Lao Ban Zhang & Man'E sample that I got is closer to pure deep chronic ... and at about the same price point as chronic!

If I had that melon I would put it on my mantle and worship it like a god. I would beg forgiveness that I ever thought it was border tea. Each day I would ask to partake in its beneficence......5-7 grams per day. Forever basking in its soul soothing glory.